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McLaren and its “Composites” division under the Bahrain flag

The sovereign wealth fund Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company announced that it had taken control of McLaren by increasing its stake from 60% to 100%. For the prestigious brand, which has experienced some turbulence in recent years, this could be an opportunity to diversify and electrify its range of supercars.

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The move had already been initiated a few years ago, but it is now official: McLaren is fully owned by the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Bahrain, Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company. For businessman and Executive Chairman of the group Paul Walsh, who has earned the trust of Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa, this capital operation is intended to enable the realisation of an ambitious strategic plan.

A new design philosophy for McLaren Automotive

Drawing on sixty years of motorsport heritage while embracing the imperative of modernising its vehicles, McLaren has just unveiled its new design philosophy. It revolves around five pillars, “Epic, Athletic, Functional, Focused, and Intelligent,” defined by the new Chief Design Officer, Tobias Sühlmann, who has previously worked at Bentley, Aston Martin, Bugatti, and Volkswagen. “Racing is in our DNA, and beauty flows from this relentless pursuit of performance. We are deeply inspired by six decades of McLaren history, but we are not rooted in our past. Our Design DNA will build McLaren into a brand that delivers 60 years of motorsport heritage in incredible lightweight supercars and beyond. A new era, with new vehicles, more product differentiation, and with Performance by Design at the heart of it,” explains Tobias Sühlmann.

McLaren Senna – Lightweighting, through aerodynamics and advanced materials, is at the core of the brand’s new strategy as it moves towards electrification.

The McLaren Composites Technology Centre is at the heart of the group’s new strategy

Beyond the potential diversification of the range and the electrification efforts, McLaren remains focused on performance, particularly through increasingly precise work on aerodynamics and weight reduction using advanced materials. “Our vehicles are designed and finished with innovative and ultralight materials, and we develop them for new uses, making them lighter, stronger, more durable, and expanding their functions,” he emphasizes, clearly referring to the McLaren Composites Technology Centre’s (MCTC) ultralight carbon architecture (MCLA): “The MCLA is designed, developed, and manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in the Sheffield region of England, using a unique process in the world, and will be the flagship of the brand’s electrified future.” The McLaren Composites Technology Centre, which represented a £50 million investment, was inaugurated in 2018. At the forefront of research, its mission is to develop and produce the carbon fibre monocoque chassis for McLaren vehicles, which are assembled at the group’s renowned technological center in Woking, Surrey, designed by famous architect Norman Foster.